‘Backstabbed and betrayed’: Brookhaven to terminate lease of one of Delco’s only family shelters

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Saint Joseph’s Family Hope Center faces imminent closure. Again.

The Borough of Brookhaven is backtracking on its previous decision — and terminating the lease of the family shelter.

“I thought we were in the clear,” said James Roberts, executive director of the shelter.

Family Hope Center must vacate the premises by Sept. 30. The three mothers and six children who currently reside in the building will be forced to leave. Shelter employees are working to move families out by the end of June.

“We want to be fair to the families in question and make sure that they get settled and that things aren’t still, like, up in the air or in jeopardy for them come the end of September,” said Robert Jordan, president of the board of Family Hope Center.

Borough Solicitor John Jay Wills did not return calls to his law office Thursday. Council President Terry Heller did not return multiple calls made to his cell phone. According to Jordan, borough officials told him the shelter’s $1 million insurance policy was “inadequate” and a “legal liability issue.”

“We just feel backstabbed and betrayed that we were told one thing publicly and privately and now we’re being treated this way legally by their solicitor and their current council,” Jordan said. “So we feel very much maligned by Brookhaven Borough at this point.”

Building sale upends shelter operations

Family Hope Center is one of only two family shelters in Delaware County. Brookhaven recently acquired the property, which used to be a convent along with seven acres of neighboring open space from Our Lady of Charity Parish.

“A shelter like this basically is the place of last resort for families until they can save and identify alternative housing which will hopefully be permanent,” Roberts said.

The ownership change threatened the status of the shelter’s tenancy. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia planned to evict Family Hope Center last October as part of a stipulation of the original lease.

Brookhaven Borough Council initially promised Family Hope Center it could remain as a tenant. Wills disagreed. He advised Brookhaven of his belief that Pennsylvania Borough Code barred the borough from running a shelter on its property.

Elected officials initially followed his direction but then changed course, granting Family Hope Center permission to stay. The borough and shelter exchanged little communication since the public skirmish.

The shelter continued to pay its $1,000-per-month rent and utilities. Brookhaven officially acquired the title of the property April 2.

Brookhaven renews effort to expel Family Hope Center

On April 8, Wills sent a lease termination notice and order to vacate the premises to Family Hope Center.

“We thought they were just terminating the original lease,” Jordan said. “We understand that the old owner is gone and then we were waiting on the new one.”

Wills sent another notice May 14.

“Your failure to acknowledge receipt of the lease termination notice for a period of 5 weeks does not bode well for the prospect of achieving an amicable resolution,” Wills wrote.

He opened the door for “a forbearance arrangement” to postpone the lease termination to September if Family Hope Center agreed to a handful of stipulations, including paying “market value rent” in the interim, preventing any additional residents from moving in, disclosing the names of shelter occupants and reserving the right to an inspection.

Jordan said Family Hope Center has no interest in signing such an agreement.

“We will probably land on our feet well at some point, but we don’t feel that Brookhaven Borough is going to be any kind of a lawful or eager or helpful partner to our mission or to the families in question,” Jordan said.

The future shuttering of Family Hope Center comes amid major federal cuts to homelessness and housing programs nationwide.

“To take away a resource like this means it’s going to be more suffering,” Roberts said.

Jordan said county human service staff are visiting next week to mull over next steps.